It's a Known Fact
by Mockingjaybird
Summary: It's a known fact between the entire staff at the Fire Lord's Palace, that Fire Lord Zuko has nightmares. They're ones that keep him screaming, so loudly, that everyone within his entire wing can hear some sort of the noise. They think it's from worries about the Nation, or memories about the war, but no one guesses that at least twice a week, Zuko dreams about losing a girl.


**AN: I've been working on this for days, so hopefully everyone likes it! I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. Please review!**

…

It's a known fact.

It's a known fact between the entire staff at the Fire Lord's Palace, that Fire Lord Zuko has nightmares. Sometimes, they're small episodes that only get him whimpering and tossing in bed, the ones no one generally hears through the thick iron doors of his chambers. But most times, they're the bad ones where he's screaming so loudly, anyone within his entire wing can hear some sort of the noise.

They place bets on him. His staff places bets on what type of nightmares he'll have that evening and sometimes even what they're about. They guess his short ones are on worries about the Nation and his long ones have things to do with his experiences in the war, and losing family. No one guesses that at least twice a week, his nightmares are about losing a girl.

He tells them to put her in the farthest wing away from his chambers, when she comes to visit for a month-long conference between the Water Tribes and Fire Nation. He doesn't want her to know. He doesn't want her to find out about his nightmares.

Zuko hopes his smile is big enough to distract from the dark circles under his amber eyes when they meet for the first conference, and it seems to work, as she greets him.

"Fire Lord Zuko," she says bowing. "It's great to see you again-"

"Katara," he interrupts, giving her a smile, "you know you don't have to call me that. And you most certainly don't have to bow. Come here." He opens his arms wide, and she breaks into a large grin, before the two embrace tightly.

But his façade seems to fail, because during the meeting, he catches her staring at him with a furrowed brow and sadness in her eyes. She's trying to figure it out, he thinks; she's trying to figure out what's made him this way since the war.

Yet she never asks, at least not to him directly, because all they really talk about is how their respective homes are doing, and how their friends have been. He discovers that Aang and Toph are now dating, and Sokka is in the process of trying to figure out a way to propose to Suki. He tells her that he and Mai broke up shortly after the war, when the stress of restoring his Nation was too great a task. Katara, herself, remains single.

"How have you been yourself?" he asks her, as they walk back from a sunset tour of the royal gardens on the seventh day of her first week.

"I've been well," she says, smiling at him, "I've just been learning more about healing in the past few months. You?"

"Just trying to hold down the fort here; you know, 'Fire Lord' stuff."

They make small talk until they reach Katara's room, just as the full moon raises high into the night. "Well, this is me," she says as they linger on the doorstep. "Where's your room, if you don't mind me asking?"

He's afraid she was going to ask that. He gives her a vague answer, saying that it's somewhere on the other side of the palace away from guests. She takes it, and the two say goodnight for the evening.

Zuko takes the silent walk back to his room, and can't believe the effect she has on him. She makes him want to be a perfect person, to make up for all the horrible things he's done in the past. But he knows there's no way he's perfect, because of his nightmares, and he doesn't even know if she likes him back.

…

Katara can't sleep. She's sat up in bed for at least two hours since she said goodnight to Zuko, just thinking. He looked tired when they first met earlier this week, and she's not sure why. Stress maybe? He said he was quite busy with running the Fire Nation. Maybe she'll ask him tomorrow. But right now, she needs to stretch her limbs.

Katara sneaks out of her chamber in the middle of the night, and basks in the silence that meets her ears. She takes a stroll, getting strange, worried looks from servants and guards as she traverses across the palace by herself, yet no one dares to stop her on her walk.

She's far on the other side of the palace, late into the night, when she thinks she hears a noise. It's a faint sound at first, but gets clearer as she walks down the long corridor. It grows to an echo, and then a shout, and then a full-on scream. Someone is screaming.

There's a guard at the end of the hallway, looking annoyed. He jumps when he notices Katara striding toward him.

"Hello, Miss. Have you lost your way?" he asks, ignoring the next scream that erupts from behind the doors.

"What's going on? Who is that?"

The guard looks uncomfortable. "Oh, uh, it's nothing to worry about."

"_Nothing_ to worry about? It sounds like someone's being tortured!"

"I can reassure you it's not that! It's…it's just the _Fire Lord_…he, he gets nightmares frequently." The guard looks defeated-he'll lose his job most certainly now; the staff isn't supposed to tell anyone, especially her.

"Nightmares," she says slowly. So that must be why he looks so tired. He's been having terrible nightmares.

"Yes, Miss." Another scream pierces the air.

"Let me in," she says to him finally; she can't stand to hear Zuko suffering like this.

"No one's allowed in the Fire Lord's personal chambers without permission-"

"Let me in."

"I've already told you enough. It's against my orders to-"

"_Please_, let me in. All I want to do is help him. _Please_." The guard looks down each side of the hallway, before he sighs and unlocks the large, iron doors. But he tells her something before she enters.

"Look, he's been having these for months. I think-we _all_ think, here at the Fire Lord's Palace-that you can do something for him. So please, do what you can."

Katara's not sure what he completely means by that, but nods and makes her way through the fire-lit-interior hallway of Zuko's chambers. His screams seem to echo louder here, and Katara soon finds the door to his bedroom.

She takes a deep breath just as the next scream pierces the air, and pushes on the door handle, finding it unlocked.

His room is dimly lit, and she has a hard time making out where his bed is in the light, before noticing it by the movement in the center of the room. Red sheets are strewn on the floor, hanging precariously off the bed, with a body squirming around and whimpering in the middle.

It's Zuko.

…

Zuko bolts up in bed and wakes up screaming, his heartbeat thumping faster and faster, and it takes him a moment to realize that someone is with him.

Katara stands in the doorway with a distraught look on her face; her blue eyes wide with worry. Her long hair frames her face like a curtain, the rest hanging down her back in a brown sheet. She's in nothing but a nightgown provided by the maids of his palace, and she stands there frozen.

"I-I'm sorry," she says in a small voice when his eyes lock onto her; she's now blushing profusely. "I couldn't sleep, so I took a walk and heard you screaming. A guard let me in…are you okay?"

Zuko's chest rises and falls rapidly as he stares at her, his own eyes wide, before he throws back the remaining heavy covers, and leaps from his bed. He sprints towards her, and nearly knocks her over in the process of wrapping her tightly in his embrace-he doesn't care how she takes it, because she's _there_-and kisses her strongly. She squeaks in surprise for a second, before her eyes flutter close and she returns it.

He backs her up against the door and takes in every available inch of her, because she's alive and real, not like in his dream, where she was dead and dying right in front of him at the hands of his sister.

"You're okay!" he sighs into her hair, when they pull apart, his voice slightly raspy from screaming. But then his mind catches up with what he's just done and he curses aloud, and steps away. "I'm sorry," he says, his cheeks beginning to get red. "I shouldn't have done that."

"N-no, it's okay," Katara says, trying to get over the shock of everything, heat flaring in her cheeks. She's never been _that_ close to him before. "Are your nightmares always this bad?"

Zuko guesses its time to come clean. "Not always, but mostly."

"What do you dream about?" She asks.

"Losing people: my mother, Uncle, friends…_you_." Katara almost misses that word, he says it so quietly. He's completely embarrassed. He never expected that this is the way he'd tell her.

"M-me?"

"Yes, you. You're in my dreams more frequently than I'd like to admit, Katara, and they're the worst when it's about you." Zuko's blushing like a little schoolgirl, his cheeks enflamed in red.

Katara doesn't know what to say; she's speechless. He has dreams about her, and in his dreams he loses her. He worries about her; he cares about her. Well then, she's got a secret to tell him. "I get them too," she says, after there's a prolonged silence.

"What?"

"The nightmares-I get them too. I've had them ever since the war ended. And guess what," she smiles sheepishly to herself, "they're about losing you."

Zuko thinks he's never wanted to hear those words so badly, until now. His mouth gapes open and close like a koi fish before he sputters out the words, "R-really? You do?" He knows exactly what this means.

Katara nods, and before she knows it, he's picking her up and spinning her around the room in giant circles, smiling at her like it's about to go out of style.

"Help me fight off my nightmares?" he asks, as he takes her on one last twirl around his room, before setting her down on the ground. She smiles at him wide, her blue eyes sparkling.

"I'd never want to do anything else."

…

It's a known fact, between the entire staff at the Fire Lord's Palace, that Fire Lord Zuko now has fewer nightmares. Sometimes, they're tiny ones, that come and go, ones he barely even notices anymore. But other times, he still needs help, when his nightmares still get him, and when he wakes up, Katara's always right by his side.

…

**AN: Please review!**


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